By STEVEN ZANDE  –
LOCAL Government Minister Vincent Mwale has lashed out at the Lusaka City Council (LCC) for not allocating enough garbage trucks to deal with the mounds of rubbish beginning to build in the city centre and markets.
Mr Mwale was not best pleased when he conducted a tour of the markets in Lusaka, only to find piles of garbage had re-emerged in many places just weeks after a concerted effort had spruced up the city’s central business district (CBD) and markets at the height of the recent cholera outbreak.
He told Town Clerk Alex Mwansa he was unimpressed by the dismal performance by the local authority.
Mr Mwale said he was dismayed that despite the council collecting revenue from traders, mounds of garbage were evident all over the city centre and popular trading places such as Soweto.
“We should not allow the garbage to pile up. From the eight trucks that we bought you, you should dedicate two to garbage collection in the CBD and so that we can maintain cleanliness in markets,” he said.
Mr Mwale said when garbage was allowed to pile up, it frustrated efforts by the Government to ensure a clean capital city.
He directed the LCC to strengthen monitoring mechanisms in the trading areas and implored traders in the markets to observe cleanliness to curb disease outbreaks.
Mr Mwansa said the local authority had put in place a programme for garbage collection; which was between 19:00 hours to 23:00 hours, so as not to disturb the smooth flow of business during the day.
He said the council had been overwhelmed by the workload, but that two vehicles had been dedicated to the exercise on a daily basis.
Mr Mwansa assured the minister that necessary steps would be taken to beef up waste collection personnel so that all garbage was collected in an efficient manner to allow traders to conduct their business in a safe environment.